The overall reputation of the company reflects significant dissatisfaction among customers, particularly regarding its customer service and reliability. Many users report frustrating experiences with delayed refunds, poor communication, and unhelpful support staff. Complaints about properties not matching descriptions or being in unacceptable conditions are prevalent, leading to a loss of trust. While a few customers express occasional satisfaction with specific transactions, the overwhelming sentiment leans towards a lack of accountability and professionalism. This has resulted in a growing number of users opting for alternative platforms, indicating a critical need for improvement in service quality and responsiveness.
This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews
I have a vacation property on VRBO. As the property has not rented for the upcoming season I decided to search for my property to see what the issue was. Lo and behold the property I have had listed on VRBO for 4 years doesn't even show up when searching rentals. When I contacted customer service I was advised that it would be referred to their team and there is nothing I can do until someone on their end responds via email.
No resolution, nothing on the potential loss of income for the property being down. List elsewhere VRBO offers no protection, just takes your money!
We had a condo for a vacation rental a couple of years with VRBO and we never had any issues, recently we sold the condo and bought a home to rent as a vacation property on VRBO.
My first complaint is that they changed the way they issue payments to the owners, we have to wait till the trailer checks in to have the funds released and then at that point we have to wait an additional 5-7 days for the funds to show up in our bank account, I just had a supervisor argue with me about verifying my account that my wife has repeatedly added me too and they still will only send her a text to verify and will not acknowledge me as the second owner, I was transferred after having them verify threw my wife to a supervisor who then asked me to verify myself again and I could not believe after 20 minutes of getting told that they don't know why the funds were not being released on last weeks check in and only a supervisor might have the reason for this and the supervisor basically gave me an extremely hard time about re verifying myself and when I said I have had it I'm going to get my wife on the phone the supervisor hung up immediately.
The bottom line is this company is now using our funds when we take the first deposit it can be a year or more out then we have to wait for the check in date and then a cleaning period this is all new policy and should be illegal considering VRBO is not a financial institution and has not right to hold monies that belong to the consumers for a very long period of time, are they insured like a financial institution if they have company problems where does our money go and we still have to honor the traveler.
I was told by VRBO that I should use them because they are a local U.S. company and IF there was any problem on my trip to France, they would back me. Well, the person from whom I rented an apartment in Antibes did create a problem. I did have to cancel the reservation and notified the owner in advance. He told me verbally and repeatedly in writing that if I cancelled my reservation and he was able to re-lease the apartment for that period that he would refund my money. He did re-lease the apartment and beyond to someone else. But, he refused to refund. I went to my "friends" that said they would be there for me at VRBO and essentially they said there was nothing they could do. I recounted all the promises, dates and people at VRBO with whom I had spoken, and they said sorry, but nothing they could do. In my case it turned out ok because Visa went to bat for me and upon presenting proof of the promises made by the apartment owner they decided the case in my favor and reversed the payment. None of this is in any way due to efforts or promises kept by VRBO. It was a lot of time, phone calls and aggravation caused by dishonest practices.
1. Chose to CALL to book a rental the first time that was advertised as "LAST MINUTE AVAILABILITy".
2. at the end of process, was told that the owner will contact us w/in 24 hrs to let us know if they've accepted our booking? Really?
3. I advised them that I'm booking flights. They continued to state the same--as if reading a script--'the owner will contact you' within 24hrs to let you know if they've accepted the booking? I told them to cancel the request. Then they said, thank you and have we answered all your questions?
4. I told them NO, you did not answer the question if this place is available, why do i need to wait 24 hrs?
5. fortunately, our flights could be canceled within the time frame that we did.
6. They did get all my credit card info--hmmm, might there be sneaky snake charges? Will keep you posted!
7. don't have the energy to discuss the 2nd time
I am an owner and I had my property on Airbnb with excellent results for over a year, buy with VRBO I only got 1 reservation in over a year, and is been over 7 weeks and I sill haven't received the payment for it. I called every week for the last 4 weeks and they always have a different excuse, they say that this department or that department will call me or email me back to resolved the problem and they never do, I tried to escalated to a manager and even for that they said that they will contact me back within 24 - 48 hours. It's frustrating and don't recommend VRBO at all ton post your property!
VRBO in and of itself is a great site. BUT Homeaawy took them over and ever since its been getting worse. As an Owner I spend way to much time trying to help ny renters who have refund issues and I have payment issues.
Since they decided to intrude in owners collecting their own rental income they have just messed thing up. When Homeaway hired Yapstone Corp to collect rental income credit card fees etc there has been nothing but problems. At least at that time I could all direct to Yapstone with issues> Payment issues took 6-7 months to fix. Drove everyone crazy. Just when its fixed Expedia takes over and get rid of Yapstone and let HomeAway take over payments. What happens all of the issues that Yapstone IT people patched all came back and Homeaway has no idea how to fix them all. Homeaway does not allow you to talk with their IT people. Only Customer Service. What good is a customer service that is ill equipted to handle and can not handle monetary issues. They call the issues--KNOW GLICHES. This is not acceptable when thousands of dollars per week are at stake and If owners can't get access to their funds then renters do not get access to rental properties.
EXPEDIA needs to wake up> taking first place away from COMCAST for worst customer service in the country is not an honor. HEY think maybe someone high up in the company will call me. NOT
There is no guarantee that vrbo.com will disburse to you the guests' payments. Be aware. I had a Guest booking for three nights and they would not pay to me the total amount. We tried to call multiple times and they keep saying different version of the facts. SCAM.
Money was taken from my account as soon as I hit send. The owner set me a message within a minute he was cancelling. Both have told me my refund is the other job. $558 threw out the window because the owner did not contact them it was unavailable. No one has tried to make this situation right.
I have been an owner advertising on VRBO since 2001. Over the past year their customer service has fallen apart. I have a repeat guest who paid a $3000 security deposit fee for a stay over Christmas in December. The day after they checked out I notified VRBO to refund their $3000 security deposit. VRBO has yet to refund their deposit. No one at VRBO knows what they are doing. VRBO is ruining my rental business. They have no follow through. I have left 5 on-line reviews after talking with a VRBO customer service rep asking for a supervisor to call me. 40 days later I have not received a call from anyone.
We booked and paid for a Penthouse Apartment in Amsterdam for the New Year's Period 2019/20. Paid $5000 AUD in full on the 13th of September last year. Upon arrival the apartment was filthy and there was evidence of drug use. We were left dealing with a 12 year old boy as the Manager, then his mother then the owner. We left the property with a verbal agreement we would receive a refund. Next day the owner replied advising no refund. VRBO Call centre then advised they don't assist with disputes. No travel insurance would cover this. Will never recommend or use VRBO again.
My overall experience with VRBO for the past 5 years, has been ok to neutral until this year. Since July it has been a nightmare. The small town where the home is located has a lodgers tax- like a hotel tax. We began receiving notices that that tax was not being paid by VRBO. When we contacted VRBO, the customer service people said they were paying the tax; the town said no; VRBO said yes, etc. Around and around it went. One of the most frustrating things is that when customer service couldn't/wouldn't help they would not transfer us to a manager. They would open a case file for us, then say they were sending it to the tax dept who would get back to us. No response from tax dept. Three very long phone calls, three case numbers, no response from VRBO. I argued with one person for at least 30 minutes before she agreed to transfer me to the Resolution Dept. What did he do? He gave me a case number and said he would send it on to the tax team. Then he suggested that I send a letter to all the renters stating that a lodgers tax had not been charged to their account and they needed to pay it. Huh? Keep in mind that there is only one phone number. I feel very frustrated. I did find out that VRBO/Home Away is owned by Expedia. I wonder if sending letters to them would help. So now we have paid the lodgers tax but we are left with no way to collect the tax from future owners as VRBO has removed that line item from their application process.
LISTEN CLOSE, I just took a trip to costa rica, and the places I stayed were horrible, and nothing like what was on vrbo, sample, I stayed at a place in playa ocotal, it was hot and humid as hell, the place had no air-conditioning, no t. V., no toilet paper, no internet, many broken things, so what I learned about vrbo, is they don't care about the travelers, only the rentals, I booked the place for 2 weeks and stayed only 2 nights, ''horrible'' so when talking to vrbo they told me to take it up with the owner, that they paid the owner all ready and there was nothing they could do... soooo, you know, when you rent from vrbo ''if'' you don't like it, theres nothing you can do... but like me, NEVER EVER WILL I USE VRBO AGAIN... vrbo does not care about travelers... trust me. Bob
I had booked a rental home in Gulf Shores Ala with them. It was terrible and they would not refund the taxes, service fees and insurances which I didn't use because it was that bad. Bed stained and stunk like urine. Sofa same thing, oven and dryer broke, Didn't not offer me compensation for the money I spent at the hotel for the rest of my time. You will save money and heartache by booking at a local rental company. Customer service reps speak broken English which makes for an additional problem. Names like Raisin, orange REALLY. Sounds more like a fruit salad. See Bed pic below for example
They took my money for an extended stay in Honolulu in November. Christmas day I received an email saying the place was over booked when I contacted them it was all lip service. "DONT WORRY" now two weeks before departure still nothing Money was returned between the amount returned and what I paid I am out 2000. 00 plus because the booking was confirmed the airline ticket booked was non refundable It has ruined the entire trip They are just scam artists with no consience and from what I read they treat property owners as bad or worse
I never received check-in instructions for the condo I reserved in Cabo through VRBO and thus I was forced to cancel a long-planned extended family Holiday celebration at virtually the last minute. I have used VRBO for 14 properties since 2014, so I know the owner is supposed to provide information a week prior to check-in. After not receiving that info, I emailed the owner repeatedly with no success and when I called "his number" I got a message that no voicemail box had been set up. I called the resort and was told there was NO reservation for me. I started contacting VRBO several days before I was supposed to leave. They could not contact the "owner." either. So I cancelled my trip, despite the fact that they told me if I couldn't get into the property, I should contact VRBO and they would find me "other lodging." I was unwilling to put my family through what easily could have been a nightmare. Since then I have called VRBO "customer service" repeatedly. I was told early-on that the owner would be contacted and told he had 48 hours to respond. If he didn't, a claim would be started. When I called today and explained my "case" again for the umpteenth time, I was told that I would have to get my refund from the credit card company or the "owner," despite the fact that neither they nor I am able to establish contact with him. To ad insult to injury, when I started protesting the call was suddenly cut off. And the credit card company said the claim was too old to process. This experience clearly demonstrates that it is way too easy for someone to list a property on VRBO, get paid, and never have to provide access to it by simply not providing the necessary information.
I own a bed and breakfast. I rent by the room not the property. They were renting my place for way cheaper then I put. I was constantly changing and fixing my property on their site. I strictly put it in the description. Every time I did manage to get a booking which was 3 maybe the whole 2 years I been with them. Every time their guest would leave I would have to update my banking info before the dispursted my money to me. Guest left over a week ago and is yet to get paid. Awful business to work with. And then their reps do not tell u anything while u are on the phone. It's like they are trained to make u frustrated. Book directly to the property itself and not through a vacation rental. We lose out on so much money anyways and your money is not guaranteed to go to the property. Small rentals are struggling anyways! Help us out by booking direct through our website. My reviews speak for us. www.pattysplacebnb.com
Worst experience of ever. I booked and paid an apartment in October 2019 for a vacation in Playa del Carmen from Dec 19/Jan 2020. The owner never replied my emails, text messages and never answered the phone. Few days before leaving we informed VRBO that we were not able to get in touch with the owner so we didn't have any info about where going to stay. My mom and my auntie were flying from Italy and we were traveling from Canada. VRBO staff contacted the owner as well and told us that the policy for reimbursement was 24 hours. If she didn't reply we would have get the money back but I made a reservation in October and you understand that on Dec 21 prices were tripled. We were not able to get in contact with VRBO staff and still the day of leaving they were not able to provide us an alternative accommodation despite selecting other apartments in their website. After insisting and being quite aggressive they finally booked an hotel for us at their own expenses. The hotel was more expensive than the apartment we selected but they didn't include the breakfast. Further more in my room there was not fridge or microwave. My staying at the hotel was great overall but the stress I got was too high. Especially because we have a 2 years old baby and guests coming from overseas. This one was my first and last experience. I do not recommend this website at all and this is part of HomeAway.com. It is basically the same.
Booked 2 places for a trip to Columbia. Owners don't respond. VRBO does not respond. No address or instructions. Just stole our money and left us hanging. We have reservation numbers, but they won't tell us the address of the freaking place. Causing so much pain and anxiety. NEVER EVER EVER AGAIN!
I rented out a property in several months in advance, with a deadline to cancel and be given a full refund two months prior to the first day.
I cancelled before the two month deadline, and was told by VRBO I would receive a full refund including the damage deposit. I received back the damage deposit, but to no avail the rest of the money I have not seen back and it has been several weeks. I have called, emailed, and been in Contact with VRBO the entire time and all they say is "They don't have an excuse and will get back to me" while nothing gets done. I had to call my credit card company and report fraud since VRBO never responded to my emails or got back to me.
What sort of legitimate company doesn't give back somebody's money and has no excuse for it.
Use Airbnb. The customer service is far better.
I can't even begin to describe how horrible VRBO is, booking a rental that was NOT the same as listing on site. They kept putting me on hold, stated "higher case" and said stay in a hotel and they would find a similar place the next day and I was to check out. I was not comfortable checking out when I had no where to stay, they never did call back. After 4 nights in a hotel and multiple emails back and forth they said my issue was denied as it was a "cosmetic" issue I had, which was absolutely not, I did once mention to add to the issues it was disgusting inside but that wasn't my issue.
Will not ever go through VRBO (Canada Stays Pelican Stays) ever again unless you want to give your money away.
Answer: There are many problems with listing with VRBO/HomeAway. The 1st is that it is the largest company of it's size. While that may mean that you get more exposure, you also have more competition for getting your listing seen. For example, your listing could be # 300 out of 2,000. Most people don't want to search that far to find what they want because they can usually find something else sooner. In order to get a higher listing, you must pay more. I pay the highest rates they have for my properties in TN # 191351, 189535, & 289723, i. E. over $1,500 each. Listing position is also based on a number of criteria which they mandate. We have no control over some of those criteria. For example, listing position is based on whether or not guests USE VRBO/HomeAway on line booking. Initially,. VRBO/HomeAway required that we OFFER on line booking in order to maximize our listing position, so I offered it. VRBO/HomeAway then changed their criteria & now guests must USE on line booking in order or my listing position drops. I have no control over whether or not they USE VRBO/HomeAway & I don't recommend it for several reasons (more on that if you're interested). Listing positions are also determined by the number & quality of reviews. Again, I have no control over whether or not someone writes a review nor how they rate a property. What may be a 5 Star for someone may only be a 3 Star for someone else, but I'm at their mercy to provide a review & to rate it well. There are many other factors that go into listing position. As I said, I try to maximize what I can & If I'm luck, my property will be listed around 50/200. I get much better response from FlipKey by TripAdvisor. As I mentioned, I pay VRBO/HomeAway over $1,500 for each property. I Pay FlipKey by TripAdvisor about $450/property for #'s 6588094, 2386143, & 3746421 & get much better results. The problem with FlipKey is that it's hard for someone to search for a specific property using the property #.
Answer: VRBO will not help anymore with anything. Homeaway bought them and there is no personal contact with owners anymore until they pay through the site. I don't know about negative reviews. Never see any. If there was a way to avoid VRBO and Someway I would do it; but they have the corner on the VACA rental market now.
Answer: I have the same problem. I don't think they have any.
Answer: Vrbo will NOT get involved in any way. They will not arbitrate on anyone's behalf. They are strictly an advertising website. Carefree travel insurance & all the other stuff is just to make renters feel more comfortable to rent. They hardly ever pay out if there is a real problem. You can sue in small claims court, in the city & state you rented in. The only defense you have is if you paid with a credit card to do a charge back, & even then its hard. You have to have documentation to prove you case. However, vrbo won't contest the chargeback if you can get your credit cad company to work with you. Best to leave a review that warns other renters to stay away. But vrbo approves the reviews before they are posted.
Answer: I have spoken with them so many times yesterday and today with no fix my problem. The number is 1-877-228-3145. I wish you better luck than I have had.
Answer: Absolutely nothing! Every change they make results in their making more money and owners making less. My bookings are down drastically. I would not sign up with VRBO.
Answer: Go with the standard listing if you have already paid. If not save your money and try homeescape.com. Homeaway/VRBO rolled out a new 9% service fee charged to your customers in addition to what you're already paying for. They did this without any warning to their customers. I found out after one of my repeat guests questioned the charge. I'm moving away from them and going with other options.
Answer: A: NEVER, EVER DEAL WITH ANY OWNERS OR PROPERTY MANAGERS THAT YOU HAVENT SPOKEN TO DIRECTLY. NEVER use any form of payment other than credit card. All CC's would refund you the money if you don't get the services. If they don't accept cards or allow payment through Homeaway, FIND ANOTHER PROPERTY OWNER WHO WILL or be prepared to take the chance. READ all reviews, if they don't have any you ARE taking a chance it's a scam or a dump (or a new property but be careful. NEVER make a large deposit EVER! VRBO has turned out to be reliable for us, never used Flipkey and AirBnB wouldn't use it - I want a large property not a room room share
Answer: Try airbnb to rent part of your home
Answer: Same issue for us. The house we rented had glowing reviews and when I tried to post an honest review it still has not been posted.
VRBO provides vacation rental listings by owner in the US and around the world.